Study: Language-Based Intervention assists with Math Skills

Students who struggle with basic math may benefit from language-based interventions, according to a series of recent studies. "The way we conceive of numbers evolves from language," said a co-author of the study. "Children learn this stuff before they learn to read, before word problems become a problem. If you can't understand what [five] means, you can't add, you can't do basic math."
EdWeek, 2011, Studies Find Language Key is Key to Learning Math

Report: States have unused student learning data

Overall, states have made unprecedented progress in collecting longitudinal student data. But they don't actually use it to improve student learning. The analysis also found that the majority of states don't link data across education systems or make it available to stakeholders. Because they don't make it available to stakeholders, they can't make decisions based on the data to help improve student outcomes.

Data for Action, 2010, Do States Use Data to Improve Student Learning?

Survey: College Students Underprepared

A survey concluded that students are entering college with too few essential skills and too many external demands on their time to optimize their higher education experience but that the use of digital tools can help take some of the edge off.
Cengage Learning and Eduventures, 2011, Survey Shows College Students Overwhelmed, Underprepared

Study: Using Technology in Classroom Raises Student Achievement

Many schools that use technology in the classroom are not maximizing its potential to improve student achievement or cut costs, according to a new report. The report advocates that schools use more technology in intervention classes, encourage students and teachers to use technology for collaboration and integrate technology into the core curriculum on a weekly basis. The report also makes the case that technology, when properly used, can lower operational costs for schools.
Project RED and the One-to-One Institute, 2011
EdWeek, http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/02/23/21computing.h30.html?tkn=ZQCCZgwTleHJsxeqrGcE9v01jxT5PzwFtZ6y&cmp=clp-sb-edtech

Gaming Violence Study

Young adults who played video games were just as likely as nongamers to recall and be physically aroused by violent or disturbing pictures, suggesting that gaming may not desensitize young people to violence, a study found. However, researchers noted some study limitations, such as the reliance on self-reports, and cited a need for more investigation.
Applied Cognitive Psychology, 2011, Violent Video Games May Not Desensitize Kids: Study HealthyDay http://consumer.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=650097

Facebook boost civic engagement

High-school students involved in digital communities based on common interests were more likely to participate in civic-minded activities, research indicates. Students who received education in digital literacy in high school or college were more likely to participate in politically driven online activities, researchers also found. "We have to find a way to bridge -- to meet the digital literacy with traditional literacies," said Samuel Reed, a Philadelphia educator. "We need to see that there's a wealth of creativity and opportunities in it, instead of ... demonizing social media."

The Christian Science Monitor, 2011, Does Facebook boost civic engagement among American youths, too?
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2011/0224/Does-Facebook-boost-civic-engagement-among-American-youths-too

Controlling for social class and children's books closes the black-white gap in kindergarten

Controlling for social class and children's books in the home closes the black-white gap in kindergarten: An important result buried deep in Fryer and Levitt (2004)

Stephen Krashen

Fryer and Levitt (2004) examined reading and math test scores in kindergarten and grade 1 using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (about 1000 schools). Their focus was the gap between black and white children.

For reading, the difference between black and white children at the start of kindergarten was .40 (where mean = 0, , sd = 1). Thus, black children scored 40% of one standard deviation below white children.

When Fryer and Levitt controlled for SES, (parents education, parent occupation, household income), the gap dropped to .134.

When they controlled for SES and number of children's books in the home the gap dropped to nearly zero, -.006.

This is a major result: social class and the presence of children's books evens the playing field. And this is only for a test given at the start of kindergarten. As they note, "including number of books …. completely eliminates the gap in reading" (p. 452).

As is typical for these kinds of results, it is buried deep in this long paper.

When Fryer and Levitt controlled for more predictors, including age at kindergarten, birth weight, whether the mother was a teenager or age 30 at the time her first child was born, the characteristics of neighborhood, whether mother was working, preschool program participation, parental involvement in child's life, family size and family structure, the difference was.093. Black children did slightly better.

Fryer and Levitt did not find the same "summer slump" than others have reported: In fact, black children closed the gap slightly over the summer. But the summer in this study was between kindergarten and grade 1. Closing the summer gap is related to access to books and self-selected reading over the summer (studies by Heyns, 1975 and by J. Kim, 2003). Not much self-selected reading takes place with six year olds.

As usual, there was no mention of libraries of any kind.

Fryer, R. and Levitt, S. 2004. Understanding the black-white test score gap in the first two years of school. The Review of Economics and Statistics 86 (2): 447-464.

Heyns, B. 1975. Summer Learning and the Effect of School. New York: Academic Press.

Kim, J. 2003. Summer reading and the ethnic achievement gap. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk 9(2): 169-188